1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid collection device and a liquid ejecting apparatus including the liquid collection device.
2. Related Art
An ink jet printer (hereinafter called “printer”) has been known for some time as one type of a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid onto a target. In the printer, cleaning operation that discharges ink with increased viscosity and the like from nozzles through which ink is ejected is carried out so as to reduce failure in ink ejection. In the cleaning operation, a nozzle forming-face in which the nozzles are formed is covered with a cap, thereafter a suction pump carries out suction operation in a cap space formed by the nozzle forming-face and the cap so that ink is discharged from the nozzles.
The ink discharged from the nozzles (hereinafter referred to as “waste ink”) is collected in a waste ink tank. The waste ink tank includes a liquid collection container and an ink absorber (liquid absorber) held in the liquid collection container. The waste ink discharged into the waste ink tank is absorbed by the ink absorber.
The waste ink permeates into the ink absorber. These days, as the number of nozzles is likely to increase so as to boost printing speed, the amount of waste ink is consequently increased. With the increase in waste ink, the volume of the ink absorber also increases. This causes a problem such that ink does not permeate into the entire ink absorber. The problem is not only due to a large volume of the ink absorber but also due to a phenomenon in which an ink solvent evaporates during a permeation process of ink so that the ink becomes to have difficulty in permeating into the absorber.
Configurations that suppress evaporation of an ink solvent using such liquid collection container have been proposed so far (for example, see JP-A-2006-218846). In a liquid collection container described in JP-A-2006-218846, a discharge opening for waste ink and an ink absorbing member (ink absorber) disposed in the vicinity of the discharge opening are covered by a cover member so that a solvent component of ink that has been discharged into the liquid collection container is suppressed from evaporating, thereby quickening diffusion of the waste ink into the inside of the ink absorbing member.
However, with the liquid collection container described in JP-A-2006-218846, although permeation capability is enhanced through suppressing the evaporation of an ink solvent, the permeation capacity of waste ink into an ink absorbing member is limited.
Even if an ink absorbing member having an enough size to absorb a required amount of waste ink is provided, the waste ink does not permeate through the entire ink absorbing member in the case where the size of the ink absorbing member is beyond the permeation capability. As a result, waste ink stays stagnantly in part of the ink absorbing member. Accordingly, there has been a risk such that the staying waste ink leaks out from an opening portion of the liquid collection container in the case where, for example, the printer is tilted.